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Saturday, January 17, 2015

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 has issued a number of orders relating to a statement given by 49 Bangladeshis (it was originally 50, but one person removed her name, most of whom live in Bangladesh) which commented on a judgement given earlier by the tribunal involving contempt of court.

Most recently the Tribunal has asked the 49 people "to explain the contents of the ‘statement’ they allegedly made and their conduct."

The sequence of events and the links to the orders involving 'the statement' are set out below

Following its order on 31 December 2014, seeking addresses of those who put their names to a statement reported in the media, the International Crimes Tribunal on 14 January 2015 passed an order on 49 of these people "to explain the contents of the ‘statement’ they allegedly made and their conduct."

In the matter of ‘statement’ made by 49 citizens on Tribunal’s order convicting David Bergman for contempt]
Order No.04

Dated 14.1.2015

Dr. Shahdeen Malik, Advocate, Bangladesh Supreme Court [one of makers to the 'statement ' in question], in compliance with Tribunal's earlier order has submitted today the address of the 49 citizens the makers to the 'statement'. We have seen it as placed by the Registrar.

Now the record is taken up for order.

1. The Tribunal taking into its notice the news item titled 'Concern of 50 citizens over Bergman's punishment' published in the Daily Prothom Alo, 20 December 2014, page 2 criticizing on the order dated 02 December 2013 punishing David Bergman a foreign national who has been working in Bangladesh as a journalist for the offence of contempt under section 11(4) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 asked the Editor, the Daily Prothom Alo for furnishing the signed copy of the text of ‘statement’.

In compliance to our order dated 28.12.2014 the Editor of the Daily Prothom Alo has submitted the unsigned copy of "Statement" to the Registrar of the Tribunal which has been placed before us.

We have seen and perused the unsigned copy of the "Statement" published in the Daily Prothom Alo on 20.12.2014 as a news item under the title 'Concern of 50 citizens over Bergman's punishment'

The Editor, the Daily Prothom Alo in his correspondence states-

"On 18.12.2014 we received the said statement of 50 citizens [Annexure-1] through an email from Hana Shams Ahmed, a writer and activist and one of the makers to the 'Statement'. After receiving the statement we cross-checked & verified the authenticity of the 'statement' and published the news on December 20,2014."

The correspondence also states that later on, Khushi Kabir, one of the 50 citizens as making the statement, wrote a letter requesting Prothom Alo to retract her name from the 'Statement'.

We are surprised to note that the Editorial Board of The New York Times a renowned international daily can make comment “If justice is truly what the International Crimes Tribunal seeks, it should immediately overturn Mr. Bergman’s sentence and Conviction”. We fail to understand how a daily news paper of international repute asks a court of law of a sovereign country by saying-- ‘it [Tribunal] should immediately overturn Mr. Bergman’s sentence’.

The order however does not pass any direction on the NYT.

In relation to the Prothom Alo report, the order states:

in order to dispel misconception and since the Tribunal is obliged to protect its jurisdiction and authority, we indispensably need to know-
(i) Whether the statement [published in the Daily Prothom Alo, 20 December 2014, page 2] has been made in the interest of public and
(ii) On the basis of which analysis the signatories have made such statement titled ''50 citizens express concern over Bergman's punishment'.

The order then goes onto the paper to submit a 'copy of the full text of the statement so made and signed by 50 citizens to the Tribunal

About Me

This is a personal blog, and any views are solely mine. I am a Bangladesh based journalist who has since August 2010 worked as Editor, Special Reports for the Bangladesh national newspaper, New Age (see my other blog on the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh: http://bangladeshwarcrimes.blogspot.com) Prior to working at New Age, between March and September 2010, I worked as a senior editor and reporter at the news website, bdnews24.com and before that I spent seven months at the Bangladesh newspaper, the Daily Star, setting up a small investigations unit. Between 2000 and 2009, I was the Executive Director of the Centre for Corporate Accountability, a UK based not-for-profit organisation concerned with workplace safety. Before that, I worked as a Television journalist and producer for about seven years working mainly for the television production company, Twenty Twenty Television in London. In 1995, I was involved in making the Royal Television Society award winning Channel Four documentary, the 'War Crimes File', a film about war crimes allegedly committed by three men during the 1971 War of Indpendence. I have lived in Dhaka since 2003.